Managing the cost of hiking food while thru-hiking can be complicated, especially when planning large quantities of resupplies in advance. Taking advantage of warehouse store prices and quantities can save considerable time, money, and headache, but likely can’t be your only source for food.


A typical warehouse store (i.e. Costco) is around 145,000 square feet and stocks around 4,000 different items. A typical grocery store (i.e. Safeway) is around 46,000 square feet and stocks around 40,000 different items. This means that a typical grocery store has about 10 times more variety than a warehouse store, and won’t require walking around as much. As such, it is easier to find exactly what you want at a grocery store than at a warehouse store.
Warehouse stores are great for stocking up on basic bulk items to save money but shouldn’t be considered the only place to shop for backpacking food. Also shopping at a grocery store will help to add variety to your diet. Varying your planned food greatly increases the likelihood you will enjoy your food on your long-distance backpacking trip (the importance of which cannot be understated).
The average savings at a warehouse store is 39%.
I compared the prices of some common backpacking food at warehouse and grocery stores, and the average cost savings was 39% (when comparing cost per serving). This is primarily because items in warehouse stores are either larger in volume or required multiple individual container purchases.


Pros of Warehouse Shopping
- Up to 50% savings over grocery store prices
Cons of Warehouse Shopping
- Requires an annual membership which typically cost $60 a year
- Most food requires repackaging which costs time and money
- Limited “backpacking type” food (i.e. smaller variety of options)
- Items must be purchased in bulk quantities. As a result you can easily end up over buying certain items.
- You can easily have food expire before you consume it.
- You are more likely to end up with less variety of food. This can result in getting sick of a certain type of food on trail.
- Things are not as easy to find in warehouses and it can take a long time to shop.


Recommendations
I recommend only shopping at warehouse stores after you have identified trail foods that you like — it’s definitely not cost effective to experiment with a new flavor of Nutella when you have to buy 5 pounds of it. I only use warehouses to stock up on items I know I like, eat a lot, and that provide the greatest cost savings.
Shopping Tips:
Most warehouses allow you to shop with a member. If you already know a member, ask if you can tag along on their next trip and look around at your options before committing to a membership yourself!